GPU problem in 15"?

[sarawr]

Firstly, I'm sorry if this has been brought up a million times. I did search it on mroogle but I wanted to post my own thread hoping to get a fast reply rather than post a reply on an old thread.

I ordered the base model MBP 15" with antiglare screen 2 days ago. It's going to be my first mac, and I researched as much as I possibly could to be sure I got the one I needed. However, I just read some threads that have got me worried that I just spent A$2300 on a faulty computer

I just read about a lot of people having issues with the graphics cards causing problems when they switch. Apparently it's to do with the intel card and flash? I read that if you have the MBP set to only use the nvidia card then you don't get the freezes or issues.

Is this true? I know that it'll shorten battery life and probably produce more heat but I really don't care. Anything that holds a charge longer than my toshiba laptop (an hour and half tops) is fine for me.

I know people shouldn't HAVE to "tweak" their new laptop, but I'm willing to sacrifice battery life and heat if it means I get the MBP I want. Pc is hell for me...

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Bending Pixels]

I've read about isolated problems, but haven't had any issues personally. I believe the graphics update Apple released in May corrected any issues that some are having. I use Photoshop CS5 which accesses the GPU with many of the filters and such - haven't had any issues at all.

As to Flash, best thing to do is to check Adobe's website for the latest version (same goes with Sun's Java).

I'm a noob Mac user (since April) and have no regrets about making the switch.

 

[dusk007]

I use my MBP 15" always on Intel's GPU and the only reason I use the 330M in OSX at all is because I often attach an external monitor. Never had any issues with forcing the Intel HD and it is also fast enough for anything I throw at it in OSX.
The only problem I run into every once in a while is that forcing the Intel GPU means I have to change it manually back to dynamic or Nvidia when plugging in my monitor or it stays black. The old versions of gfxCardStatus switched on their own the ones don't for some reason.
I did have one or two freezes when I got the notebook but in the last couple months I didn't.

 

[stefan1975]

yup. any other browser apart from safari kicks in the 330M, that's why i use gfxcardstatus to force my MBP15 to use intel only 100% of the time and let my 330M collect dust, it's much smoother this way and i get way over 7 hours of real life battery.

there is no issue of it freezing or anything, just any non-apple product doesnt seem to play nice with the apple alternative to optimus with the seemless switching and kick in the wrong card for no apparant reason.

intel only and nvidia only are smooth as silk though.

 

[Macsavvytech]

From what I've Read These problems aren't very common and as has been already posted the semi-recent Graphics Update was meant to fix it.